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Publisher's Summary

A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today. When Quoyle, a 36-year-old, third rate newspaperman, learns that his two-timing wife has abandoned him and their two daughters, he returns to his ancestral home on the Newfoundland coast, where amongst locals and three generations of his family, he begins to rebuild his life. Newfoundland is a dreary rock in the north Atlantic beset by lousy weather. Proulx recreates this barren location in her vivid, distinctive prose and populates it with a cast of amusing, richly human characters. The transformation each of the characters undergoes following the move is profound. And Proulx creates a simple and compelling tale of Quoyle's psychological and spiritual growth as he confronts his private demons. Along the way, we catch a glimpse of the maritime beauty of what is probably a fading existence.

The Shipping News

This book is such a great read I couldn't put it down. It stayed in my thoughts when I couldn't read it, and I used any excuse to get back to it. A quirky, humorous and sad story, it is written as vividly as though the author was experiencing everything as she wrote. The characters are almost alive and kind of odd, having lived in a small community for so long. But the great thing is that everyone accepts the quirks of others, at least until the end.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

By
Steve Kirkwood
on
12-16-12

Difficult to listen to

I got this on a recommendation from someone who had read the book. Very soon into listening to it I became very frustrated with the readers style, it seemed that the stresses and punctuations were all wrong, that is until I looked at the book. The author’s style is written like a mass of headlines and short sentences thrown together.

I struggled to finish the book and found the ending so unbelievable that it diminished any of the good I could recount. The prose is frustrating in a book that travels at 5 miles per hour on a road going nowhere.

Perfect

if you like Anne Tyler then you will like this. I love the slow burn of stories about people where something but nothing happens. A man moves to newfoundland with his 2 children and tries to begin again after a tragedy. but there are old family ties that create the story and interweave with his life.